The trouble with broadcast election coverage

In much the same way that every party and his or her dog has a good old moan about the BBC's bias, lack of interest etc etc, AZAPO are not at all happy with the South African Broadcasting Corp:

"Funani ka Ntontela, Azapo's Eastern Cape secretary, said the manner in which the public broadcaster covers political parties, demonstrated bias in favour of the African National Congress (ANC) and its splinter group Congress of the People (Cope). "Azapo sent countless letters to the SABC complaining about this sad state of affairs. In all fairness, thus far nothing has changed despite commitment to the contrary," he said.

A bit of digging shows that the Azanian People's Organization secured a hugely impressive 0.25% of the vote last time, or slightly less than Respect did here in 2005, and slightly more than the Scottish Socialists. As such it was the 12th most successful South African part in terms of votes, on a par with the SDLP.Azania as a name can provoke the odd stiffled snigger, what with it being the name of Waugh's fictional African state in 'Black Mischief'.